How to beat Commander Niall in Elden Ring

You’ll have to defeat Commander Niall to get one-half of the Haligtree Secret Medallion needed to access the Consecrated Snowfield in Elden Ring. Niall is a powerful boss best faced at higher levels, given his hard-hitting, far-reaching attacks. If you put an end to him, you’ll walk away with 90,000 Runes, as well as the Veteran’s Prosthesis weapon. Here’s how to defeat this brutal opponent.

Niall is the main boss of Castle Sol, located on the Mountaintop of the Giants. You’ll find him beyond a Mist Gate located close to a lift at the top of the castle.

We highly recommend you avoid this boss until you’re level 100 or above. We were level 120 when we defeated him. Additionally, make sure you’ve acquired the Mimic Tear summon, as it helps out greatly in this fight.

Phase 1

Once you’re through the Mist Gate, Niall will summon two guards that will proceed to attack you. This is why having the Mimic Tear is important. Summon your Mimic, and let it attack one guard while you tackle the other. Don’t worry too much about Niall in this phase; he mostly just walks around until you kill his guards. 

Once you kill your guard, do not go help your Mimic with the other one. Instead, focus on Niall. During the first phase of the fight, Niall is a pretty manageable boss. Your strategy during this phase should be to simply hit Niall immediately after avoiding his attacks. We’ve listed each of his attacks below, along with how you should respond to them:

• Melee strikes: Niall hits you with his flagpole, and may perform combos of up to four hits. You can avoid Niall’s melee strikes by dodging. If you’re behind him, he may try a slightly different melee combo that starts with him trying to stab you with the bottom of his pole, so be wary if you’re behind Niall and see him raise his pole in front of him.
• Flagpole AOE frost attack: This attack sees Niall perform an upward strike with his flagpole as it becomes engulfed in icy winds. The boss then plunges his weapon into the ground, causing a ring of frost to appear around him. The first hit can be dodged through, but get as far away from him as possible if you see wind around Niall’s weapon.
• Spinning AOE frost attack: Niall turns his body, takes a low stance, and grips his weapon with both hands. He’ll then begin to summon a whirlwind of frost around him. After a few seconds, he’ll spin around, causing heavy frost damage to anyone around him. This move has a massive AOE; if you see Niall take a low stance, run as far away from him as you can.

You’ll mainly want to hit Niall immediately after he’s finished any one of his attacks. We recommend making liberal use of leaping heavy attacks, as well as weapons that cause bleeding to really cut into this boss’ HP.

Once you’ve depleted about half of his HP, the second phase of the boss fight will start. If you kill both of his minions at the start of the fight, Niall’s second phase will start immediately, regardless of how much health he has, which is why you’ll want to keep one guard alive. The other guard will die automatically at the start of the second phase.

Phase 2

This is where the real fight begins. Niall will take a stance similar to the one he takes in his spinning AOE attack in the first phase, and then spin his weapon around multiple times. Just stay away from him while he’s doing this. At the end of this animation, lightning will strike him, and he’ll be in his second phase. If your Mimic is still alive during this phase, this will help greatly, as it will distract Niall, affording you some free hits.

Niall is a lot more mobile, aggressive, and dangerous during this phase, and many of his moves can easily one-shot you if you’re too low of a level. Here’s every move he’s got in the second phase:

• Lightning kick: Niall’s prosthetic leg is charged with lightning, and he’s not afraid to hit you with it. He’ll raise his leg high in the air, and then slam it down into the ground. Move around Niall by dodging towards him at an angle to avoid this move. 
• Leaping lightning kick: Similar to the grounded lightning kick. Niall leaps into the air, pauses for a moment, and then tries to crash down on you with his leg. Dodge forward as he’s coming down, and your invincibility frames should save you. 
• Frost dash: Niall whirls his weapon around him once, creating a frost whirlwind around him before charging towards you. At the end of his charge, he’ll swipe up with his weapon, and then slam his weapon into the ground, creating a frost AOE around him. Avoid this by rolling towards him as he’s about to reach you, and then get away from him to avoid his AOE blast.
• Whirlwind combo: Niall will whirl his weapon in a similar way to how he did during his frost dash, and perform one of two attacks out of it. He will either swipe his weapon at you, or, if you’re far enough away from him, he’ll skate towards you in an arc before trying to hit you with an upward slash. If he goes with the former move, simply roll away from it. If he goes with the latter, roll into Niall as he’s approaching you.
• Melee strikes: Same as the first phase.
• Flagpole AOE frost attack: Same as the first phase.

This fight requires patience. More often than not, you’ll only be able to safely get one hit off on Niall. Make that hit count. Like the previous phase, we found heavy leaping attacks and weapons that cause bleeding especially useful in this fight. If he performs his whirlwind attack and finishes it by skating toward you, he’ll be exhausted for a few seconds. Unload on him during this time period. 

As stated before, the Mimic will help you a lot during this fight by distracting Niall. If your Mimic is dying too early, we recommend upgrading it at Roundtable Hold so that it has more health.